In re Coby Todd Bausch

In re Coby Todd Bausch, 08-25-00326-CV, June 26, 2026.

On appeal from 112th Judicial District Court of Pecos County, Texas

Synopsis

Mandamus failed because the relator did not carry the second half of the extraordinary-relief burden: he never showed why an ordinary appeal would be inadequate. In a dispute over a trial court order clarifying a successor trustee’s powers under Texas Property Code § 115.001, the El Paso Court of Appeals held that complaints about notice, hearing, or the scope of trustee authority generally belong in the normal appellate process unless the relator affirmatively demonstrates a truly inadequate appellate remedy.

Relevance to Family Law

This is a trust case, but the mandamus lesson is directly relevant to Texas family-law practice. Family litigators routinely confront interlocutory trust, receivership, entity-control, and asset-preservation orders in divorces, SAPCR-related property disputes, enforcement proceedings, and post-divorce fiduciary litigation involving family trusts. In re Bausch is a useful reminder that even when counsel believes the trial court acted summarily or exceeded its authority, mandamus is not a substitute for ordinary appeal; if the complained-of ruling can be reviewed after final judgment without permanent loss of substantial rights, the petition is vulnerable. That matters in divorce cases involving trustee powers over marital or separate-property trusts, disputes over management of trust-owned ranches or businesses, and orders affecting interim control of income-producing assets during litigation.

Case Summary

Fact Summary

The dispute arose from the Garrison Family Trust, created in 1984. The trust beneficiaries included relator Coby Todd Bausch and real party in interest Lacy Paige Brooke. The trust was supposed to terminate when the youngest beneficiary reached age thirty-five, at which point the trustee was to wind up the trust and distribute the assets to the beneficiaries in their respective proportions. The problem was that the instrument did not specify those proportions.

After the original co-trustees died, neither the designated substitute trustee nor its successor accepted appointment, and the trust assets remained undistributed. Brooke and another real party in interest filed suit in district court seeking appointment of a third-party successor trustee to wind up the trust. The trial court appointed a successor trustee and vested him with the rights, powers, privileges, duties, and authority conferred on the trustee under the trust.

As conflict among the parties escalated, the real parties sought a clarifying order defining the successor trustee’s authority. The trial court granted that motion without first holding a hearing and signed an order that expressly authorized a broad range of actions tied to winding up the trust. Those powers included entering and inspecting trust property, paying taxes, employing surveyors and appraisers, selling or partitioning trust property, leasing property, collecting rents, taking control of property to ensure equal access, determining distributees and shares, requiring an accounting from Bausch, preserving and insuring trust property, obtaining beneficiary loans for administration costs, and taking other necessary actions to complete the winding up.

Bausch then filed a motion to set aside and vacate the clarifying order, sought reconsideration, requested a stay, and asked for a hearing. The opposing parties responded, and the trial court later held a hearing on September 23, 2025. After that hearing, the court denied reconsideration. Bausch then sought mandamus relief, arguing that the clarifying order was void for lack of notice and hearing and that the trial court had improperly expanded the trustee’s powers beyond the trust instrument.

Issues Decided

• Whether mandamus relief was available to challenge an order clarifying a successor trustee’s powers when the relator did not establish the lack of an adequate appellate remedy.
• Whether the relator’s due-process complaint based on the absence of a pre-order hearing justified mandamus when the trial court later held a hearing on reconsideration and reconfirmed its ruling.
• Whether complaints about the scope of powers granted to a successor trustee under Texas Property Code § 115.001 are the kind of issues ordinarily addressed through direct appeal rather than extraordinary relief.

Rules Applied

The court relied on familiar mandamus standards and on the statutory framework governing trust litigation:

• Mandamus requires proof of both:
• a clear abuse of discretion; and
• no adequate appellate remedy.
  In re Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 148 S.W.3d 124, 135–36 (Tex. 2004); Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 839–40 (Tex. 1992).
• The relator bears the burden to establish entitlement to mandamus relief.
  In re H.E.B. Grocery Co., 492 S.W.3d 300, 302 (Tex. 2016) (orig. proceeding) (per curiam).
• A claimed notice defect does not necessarily establish a due-process violation warranting extraordinary relief where the trial court later considers the party’s response and reconfirms its ruling after a hearing.
  Martin v. Martin, Martin & Richards, Inc., 989 S.W.2d 357, 359 (Tex. 1998).
• Texas district courts have original and exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings by or against a trustee and proceedings concerning trusts, including actions to construe a trust and determine the powers, responsibilities, duties, and liability of a trustee.
  Tex. Prop. Code § 115.001.
• Questions concerning trustee authority after trust termination are the type of matters that can be addressed by ordinary appeal.
  Sorrel v. Sorrel, 1 S.W.3d 867, 869–71 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg 1999, no pet.).

Application

The court’s reasoning was straightforward and strategically important. Bausch framed his petition around two theories: first, that the clarifying order was void because it was signed without notice and a hearing; second, that the order materially expanded the successor trustee’s authority beyond what the trust instrument permitted. But the court did not have to resolve the full merits of those complaints because the petition failed at the threshold.

On the due-process point, the court rejected the idea that the absence of a hearing before the clarifying order was signed automatically established a mandamus-worthy deprivation. The trial court later held a hearing after Bausch filed his motion for reconsideration, reviewed the parties’ written submissions, and reaffirmed the ruling. That procedural sequence mattered. In the court’s view, any arguable defect associated with the initial entry of the order was cured—or at least rendered non-extraordinary—by the subsequent opportunity to be heard and the trial court’s reconsideration of the ruling.

The more significant part of the opinion is the appellate-remedy analysis. The court emphasized that Bausch did not merely fail to persuade the court on adequacy; he did not even attempt to show why ordinary appeal was inadequate. That omission was fatal. The opinion treats disputes over a trustee’s powers as the kind of trust-administration questions district courts routinely decide under Property Code § 115.001 and appellate courts routinely review in the normal course. The court also noted that the very authority Bausch invoked on the merits—Sorrel—was a direct appeal, not a mandamus proceeding. In other words, his own cited authority illustrated the problem with his procedural vehicle.

The court therefore concluded that extraordinary review was unnecessary. Nothing in the petition showed that waiting for final judgment would permanently destroy a substantial right or otherwise make appellate review ineffective. Without that showing, mandamus was unavailable regardless of how forcefully the relator disputed the scope of the trustee’s powers.

Holding

The court held that mandamus relief was unavailable because the relator failed to establish the absence of an adequate appellate remedy. A challenge to an order clarifying or determining a successor trustee’s powers under Texas Property Code § 115.001 ordinarily must proceed through the regular appellate process, absent a developed showing that appeal from final judgment would be inadequate.

The court also held that the relator did not demonstrate a due-process violation warranting extraordinary relief. Although the clarifying order was initially signed without a hearing, the trial court later held a hearing on the motion for reconsideration, considered the parties’ positions, and reconfirmed the order. Under those circumstances, the court would not conclude that the relator had been denied due process in a manner justifying mandamus.

Finally, the court denied both the petition for writ of mandamus and the relator’s motion to stay the underlying proceedings.

Practical Application

For family-law litigators, In re Bausch is less about trust doctrine than about procedural discipline. In divorce cases, lawyers often face interim orders involving family trusts, estate-planning vehicles, LLCs, ranch operations, or fiduciaries who control assets one spouse claims as separate property or reimbursement-related property. When a trial court enters an order defining a trustee’s authority, directing management of trust-owned property, requiring accountings, authorizing sales, or controlling interim access to assets, the immediate instinct may be to file mandamus. This case is a caution that such a petition will likely fail if it does not explain—concretely and specifically—why ordinary appeal cannot cure the harm.

That has particular force in high-asset divorce litigation. Suppose the court appoints a receiver, special fiduciary, or trustee-like neutral to manage a family entity or trust-owned ranch during the case. Suppose further that the order authorizes leasing, collection of rents, sale preparation, or distribution planning. If the complaint is essentially that the trial court interpreted the governing instrument incorrectly or granted powers too broadly, Bausch suggests the appellate court may treat that as a merits issue for direct appeal, not mandamus, unless counsel can identify a non-remediable harm.

The due-process component is equally useful. Family courts sometimes sign interim clarifying or enforcement orders on shortened timelines, especially when asset access, property preservation, or tensions among family members are intensifying. If the court later gives the objecting party a full opportunity to brief, argue, and seek reconsideration, a mandamus petition premised solely on lack of a pre-order hearing may not gain traction. Counsel should therefore preserve the complaint, build a record, seek prompt reconsideration, and demonstrate actual prejudice rather than assume that a procedural defect alone guarantees extraordinary relief.

Pragmatically, Bausch also reinforces three strategic habits:

1. Match the remedy to the order. Not every aggressive or even erroneous interlocutory order is mandamus-worthy.
2. Develop the inadequacy argument separately from the merits. Appellate courts often deny mandamus without reaching the substantive complaint if the petition does not explain why appeal is inadequate.
3. Build a post-order record. If the trial court later hears the issue and reaffirms its ruling, counsel must address why that later hearing did not cure the alleged problem.

Checklists

Evaluating Whether Mandamus Is the Right Vehicle

• Identify the exact interlocutory order being challenged.
• Determine whether the complaint is truly jurisdictional, voidness-based, or merely a merits dispute about the scope of authority granted.
• Analyze whether the complained-of harm can be corrected on appeal from a final judgment.
• Ask whether the order will permanently destroy a substantial right before final judgment.
• Separate the “abuse of discretion” argument from the “no adequate appellate remedy” argument.
• Avoid assuming that alleged due-process error automatically satisfies the inadequacy requirement.

Preserving Error on Trustee, Fiduciary, or Asset-Control Orders in Family Cases

• File a prompt motion to reconsider, vacate, or modify the order.
• Request a hearing expressly and obtain a ruling on the request if possible.
• Submit written objections identifying notice defects, procedural defects, and substantive overreach.
• Offer the governing trust instrument, entity documents, or controlling property orders into the record.
• Explain how the challenged powers exceed the instrument or applicable law.
• Secure a reporter’s record of any reconsideration or clarification hearing.
• Obtain a signed order on reconsideration to clarify what the trial court ultimately decided after hearing argument.

Building the “No Adequate Appellate Remedy” Record

• Identify specific rights that will be lost before final judgment if relief is delayed.
• Show why monetary reimbursement or later reversal cannot make the client whole.
• Tie the harm to concrete facts, such as irreversible sale, dissipation, disclosure, transfer, or destruction of unique property rights.
• Explain why later appeal would be functionally useless, not merely inconvenient.
• Cite mandamus cases involving comparable irreparable harms rather than relying only on merits authorities.
• Address whether any later hearing or reconsideration cured the initial procedural complaint.

Responding to Broad Trustee-Powers Requests in Divorce or Post-Divorce Litigation

• Scrutinize whether the requested powers track the governing trust instrument.
• Distinguish powers necessary to preserve property from powers that effectively adjudicate ownership or distribution rights.
• Object to catch-all language that authorizes “any other action” without meaningful limits.
• Ask the court to require notice, reporting, and accounting obligations for any trustee or neutral.
• Seek guardrails on sale authority, leasing authority, borrowing authority, and distribution authority.
• Request findings or clarifications showing why each power is necessary to preserve or administer the property at issue.

Avoiding the Non-Prevailing Party’s Mistake

• Do not file mandamus without a developed section proving appeal is inadequate.
• Do not rely solely on the assertion that lack of notice made the order void.
• Do not cite direct-appeal authorities on the merits without addressing why those same issues cannot await direct appeal here.
• Do not ignore the effect of a later reconsideration hearing on any claimed due-process violation.
• Do not assume that trust-administration disputes are categorically extraordinary; most are not.

Citation

In re Coby Todd Bausch, No. 08-25-00326-CV, 2026 WL ___ (Tex. App.—El Paso June 26, 2026, orig. proceeding) (mem. op.).

Full Opinion

Read the full opinion here

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